People in Sunnyside

The stories of ordinary people in the early years of the neighborhood are part of the reason I continue to research—untold, evocative, scrappy, and inspiring by turns. For Sunnyside and nearby neighborhoods. See also this page of photographs.

Posts about people who lived here:

• The King of the Clairvoyants: The Man who bought the Sunnyside Conservatory
• Artemis Lost: The Story of a Bold Girl in Turn-of-the-Century Ocean View 
• A Bridge-Builder and Muni Driver Raises a Family on Congo
• The Italian Craftsman Who Signed His Cabinets
• A Companion to Hollywood Starlets Settles Down on Baden Street
• A Swedish Builder Rebuilds a Family
• Gilbert Plov, Little-Box Builder
• Immigrant Dreams and Long Hours: The Delicatessen at Monterey and Edna
• Families on the edge of the forest: Mangels Avenue in the 1910s and 1920s
• The love story of William and Temperance Merralls
• The Quest for  Sunnyside Hall — early activists in the district
• 1980s: O’Donoghue’s, an Irish pub on Monterey
• George R Reilly and the first LGBT legal victory in US history
• The Sunnyside Coalyard and the Williams Family of Joost Avenue
• Gloomy Gus Goes to War: Stan Staub, Cub Reporter and WWII Soldier
• Home Invasion at the Wilson Dairy on Gennessee Street
• W.A. Merralls: Inventor and Entrepreneur of Sunnyside
• Growing Up on Congo Street in the 1920s
• The Ballad of Ellen Furey
• The Terror of Sunnyside
• The Lohbrunners Come to Sunnyside
• Good Deeds and Bad: the House at 503 Edna Street
• Frenchie’s, a local shop at Hearst and Congo
• A Savior on a Rocky Knoll
• Brawl at Schultz’s Saloon

Posts about people elsewhere:

• Laws, Lies, and Lace Frills: San Francisco’s First Woman Prosecutor (San Francisco)
• “Rosie, the Girl from Paris”: How a Barbary Coast Madam retired to Chenery Street (Glen Park)
• The Mad Hatter of Tiffany Avenue (Mission District)

By name:

• Barrett, John  carpenter, early activist
• Cleary, Benjamin Franklin (1872 – 1940) Guard at the County Jail
• Code, Emma Sophia (1842 – 1915) Forty-Niner; second principal of Sunnyside School
• Ekenberg, Hugo Sigfrid (1883 – 1981) lived 400 Joost; found attempted suicide.
• Ephraim, Janette E. (1858 – 1940) Third principal, Sunnyside School, 1910-1927
• Ewell, Augustus H. (1856 – 1911) Engineer, local activist.
• Furey, Ellen (1844 – 1896) the brave old dairy woman hit by Southern Pacific train.
• Hanlen, Emily Helen Wilson (1886 SF CA–1959 San Francisco CA)
• Johnson, John Albert (1845 – 1919) Marble cutter, community activist. Also here.
• Johnson, Mary A. (1947 – 1901) Mother of five, victim of habeas-corpus violation.
• Lohbrunner, Max L. (1860 – 1930) Gold miner and father of Lee and Adolph.
• Lohbrunner, Elizabeth (1872 – 1943)
• Lohbrunner, Lee Louis  (1889 – 1976) 400 Joost Ave.
• Lohbrunner, Mary (1885 – 1961) 400 Joost Ave.
• Lohbrunnner, Adolph (1890 – 1981) 412 Joost Ave.
• Lohbrunner, Elsie Goessel (1901 – 1951) 412 Joost Ave.
• Merralls, Lizzie A. (1849 – 1908) helped build Sunnyside Conservatory. 258 Sunnyside Ave.
• Merralls, Temperance Laura Neely Clark (1965 – 1930) Ran ‘Sunnyside Laboratories’ at 258 Sunnyside Ave (supposedly). Second wife of W.A. Merralls.
• Merralls, William Augustus (1952 – 1914) Inventor and entrepreneur; helped build Sunnyside Conservatory. 258 Sunnyside Ave.
• Molinari, Joseph (1892 – 1974) Son of Giovanni; longtime Sunnyside resident.
• Navas, Helena Hotchick (1881 – 1950) Shop-keeper, mother of eight.
• Navas, Ruben Rodriguez (1858 – 1946) Shop keeper, father of eight.
• Paczoch, Carl (1857 – 1916) Early Sunnyside resident, factory laborer, father of six.
• Riordan, Catherine F. (1874 – 1933) Sunnyside School’s first principal
• Schnee, Gustave (1869 – >1935) Contractor, realtor, early activist
• Schultz, Paul, Saloon keeper, 1897
• Smart, George Clement (1843 – 1913) Proprietor of New York Dairy, on San Jose Ave nr Sunnyside. Defendant in milk-adulteration trial.
• Tiegel, Herman (1853 – 1926) The Terror of Sunnyside.
• Williams, Sephaniah (1858 WI – 1932 SF)
• Wilson, Carolina Pedersen (1849 Sweden–1914 San Francisco CA)
• Wilson, John Augustus (1845 Sweden–1919 San Francisco CA)
• Wilson, John Edward (1876 CA–1948 CA)